All Articles: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

Activision’s Prototype 2 took the top spot in the latest NPD report of bestselling games. Another new release, the Xbox 360-exclusive Kinect Star Wars, “did the Han Solo” all the way up to #2.

The remainder of the list is overflowing with familiar faces from last Fall including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (#3), NBA 2K12 (#5), and Just Dance 3 (#9). It wasn’t a Fall release, but Mass Effect 3 continues to hold strong at #8 now that the controversy over the game’s ending has come to… an end.

In terms of dollars made, the game industry suffered a 32% drop in overall sales from April 2011 ($630.4 million versus $930.9 million) when Portal 2 and Mortal Kombat ruled the charts.

You can check out the NPD Group’s complete list of bestsellers for April 2012 after the break. (more…)

Welcome to another relatively dry week of new releases in the relatively dry month of April.

The biggest new release of the week is the Enhanced Edition of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings for the PC and, for the first time, on the Xbox 360.

Also new this week is Deadliest Warrior: Ancient Combat, a compilation that brings together the downloadable games Deadliest Warrior and Deadliest Warrior: Legends in one retail package. It’ll be available for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Finally this week is Atlus’ Vita RPG Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention. It’s a shrunk-down version of the PS3 game with nearly the same name, so if you love strategy RPGs, it might be one to look into.

Cloud gaming service Gaikai has announced the beta of it’s Facebook app will be available for gamers to try out for free.

Gaikai promises its app will provide “high-end, console quality game experiences” on Facebook through the use of Cloud streaming technology. David Perry, CEO of Gaikai, hopes video game publishers will embrace the service to expand their digital customer base, and underscores the value of letting people try games with no obligation, saying, “The Facebook social graph fuels our mantra ‘Try it for free’, ‘Share it if you like it’, ‘Buy it if you love it’.”

There are a limited number of titles available to play for free in the beta version of the app, which is only currently available in the US and Europe. Saints Row: The Third and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record are available in the US only, while Magicka, Sniper: Ghost Warrior, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, Orcs Must Die!, and Farming Simulator 2011 are available in the US and Europe.

To play, you’ll need a broadband Internet connection and Java installed. Gaikai works on PC or Mac in all major browsers. To check out the app for yourself, head over to Facebook and fire up Gaikai right now.

Gimme a W! Gimme a B! What’s that spell!?!… You know, that kind of thing doesn’t work when what you’re trying to spell is just initials.

Anyway, Lollipop Chainsaw and its gory school bus full of gore and guts will be making a stop at this weekend’s PAX East expo. The game, which is scheduled for a June 12 release on the PS3 and Xbox 360, will be available in playable form to fulfill all your fantasies of cheerleaders, chainsaws, and doing the splits to decapitate a zombie.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment will also be showcasing playable versions of Mortal Kombat for the portable PlayStation Vita, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings for the Xbox 360, The Lord of the Rings Online, and Dungeons & Dragon Online: Menace of the Underdark in booth #424.

CD Projekt RED has announced they’re bringing their popular PC RPG, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, to the Xbox 360 on April 17. Two retail versions will be released, including the standard edition (which is actually called the Enhanced Edition) and a special edition known as the Dark Edition. The Enhanced Edition will contain all of the PC version’s currently released downloadable content, as well as Enhanced Edition-exclusive features such as new quests and locations as well as “the introduction of major new NPCs who intensify the struggle for power in the Northern Kingdoms.” All of the Enhanced Edition features will be available for free to those who already own the PC version.

The Dark Edition will include the entirety of the Enhanced Edition as well as all the special edition trappings including a soundtrack CD, an artbook, a Quest Handbook, and a Witcher medallion.

The head of CD Projekt RED studio, Adam Badowski, said, “The Xbox 360 version is a complete adaptation of the game to the new platform, we’ve rewritten the code so it feels native to the console. This latest version of The Witcher 2 has been expanded in many ways, and some experts believe it to be one of the best-looking games ever to make it to consoles.”

There will also be a brand new CGI introduction to the game, directed by Tomasz Baginski, a BAFTA winner and Oscar nominee. Additionally, the Xbox 360 version will also have lots of new cinematics. I wonder how it will compare to the PC version?

Were you all set to get witchy on the Xbox 360 this Fall? Well, you’re going to have to wait a bit longer as CD Projekt has announced that the Xbox 360 version of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings will now be released sometime during the first three months of 2012.

Production delays were cited in the developer’s official statement:

“As was previously announced, The Xbox 360 version of The Witcher 2 is an adaptation of the game to the new platform. This means that the process involves significant changes and improvements for the Xbox 360 console version – not a typical port of the game, which is usually much simpler and faster. The move of the release date allows the team to spend more time expanding and polishing certain elements of the gameplay.”

CD Projekt revealed that their ongoing legal battle with Namco Bandai also played a small role in The Witcher 2’s delay.

But some good news also witched its way out into the world. CD Projekt has confirmed that a DLC expansion of some kind is in the works for the PC version of The Witcher 2. But more information on that won’t be released until the Gamescom show.

Put on your detective hat as we go searching for clues to this this week’s new releases.

The biggest new game of the week is Rockstar Games’ L.A. Noire. An ambitious story of murder and traffic violations in 1940s Los Angeles, L.A. Noire has been a long time in the making and has the makings of changing the way we look at games with its facial cues game mechanic.

If you listen to the Warp Zoned Podcast, you’ll know I’m not a big fan of Western RPGs. So it’s saying something when even I have to admit that The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is looking pretty awesome. CD Projekt released the dev diary above, narrated by some guy with a vague European accent. Regardless, it does a great job showing off the opening sequence, as well as the character progression and variety thereof. They even give you a taste of bar-room brawling!